


They are tired of getting just scraps.

by foldingchairmagicalgirl



Category: C/S/R (OFF Fangame), OFF (Game)
Genre: "Just trust me.", Abuse, Cannibalism, Every boss has 2 phases now, Gore, Has some ref to C/S/R, I change the name of this occasionally..., Kinda on your own with that, No time for romance, Read with some caution cause i dont use warnings mid-chapter, Some of these tags are later on, Somewhat game compliant, There are more main characters?, Who's really in control, Zone 1 finished, player wields the add-ons, updates every week to every 2 weeks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:00:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28619934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foldingchairmagicalgirl/pseuds/foldingchairmagicalgirl
Summary: The strings were tightening to the point of where their precious skin was splitting open, their delicate facade shattering like a ornate mirror. Only to show that they were nothing more than monster with amnesia and a superiority complex."All eyes are on those who actually give a damn, and I am willing to kill for it."
Relationships: The Batter/The Player
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	1. The prologue of the unknown

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [RESTART](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23835427) by [LynxOnSmoothies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynxOnSmoothies/pseuds/LynxOnSmoothies). 



Trying to get over a serious break up is hard, playing horror games through your tears is even harder, and it wasn’t helping with your online friend’s little message boxes appearing in the corner. It seems like they are trying to recommend you something, but at that point of breaking in the moment, you ignored it. Well, tried to. It was hard not to, especially with the message box’s color clashing with the game’s colors. Cleaning your glasses from your tears and putting them back on, you read your friend’s messages. Most of them were just trying to uplift you from your depressing mood, some were asking for tips, but one struck you as odd. 

“Have you played that game I recommended yet?” It took a few seconds to realize what they were talking about. Your eyes widen, of course!

“Not yet, I have it downloaded though. I’ll play it now.” Closing the previous game down, you quickly open the recommended one. It’s title screen colors already clash with one another, and your eyes sorta hurt from it, but you also felt unsettled from just analyzing the opening image. Turning on your deskside lamp and clicking on the new game button, you were ready for whatever it was going to throw at you. 

You were met with the basic warning of what the game would contain, and a quick set up of the font styles to be held. When asked for a name, you simply put in your middle name. You didn’t feel like jumping through hoops for the right name to be haphazardly carried throughout. Quickly picking “i’m a girl” for your gender, you were already eager to start. The game’s opening text was enticingly displayed on the lower half of the screen. 

“Welcome, (y/n). You’ve been assigned to a being called “The Batter”. The Batter has an important mission. Be sure that it is accomplished. We will let you out in zone 0. Good luck.” That was… uneventful, and kind of disappointing. Nevertheless, you continued with it.  
…  
You didn’t get a wink of sleep that night, and almost lost your PC a couple of times. Who knew that such a game would be so… frustrating in it’s puzzles? Well it was one of the main elements of the game. Looking out the window, the sun was already starting to rise. Dang it. You still had to grab some bit of sleep before that stupid engagement party you had to be there for. Before that though, you noticed that there was a message from them. 

“Good morning! How’d you sleep?” You were about to reply that you slept well, but then remembered that you didn’t sleep at all last night.  
“Uh… didn’t sleep at all… ._.;”  
“Huh? Why? Stupid memories of your ex keep ya up?”  
“No, I was busy playing video games… OFF, to be exact.”  
“Oh! So...what do you think of it?” You sat there, stunned. Wait, they were still typing. “Also, you should’ve slept! You really wasted your time for sleeping just for a game?” Yikes, you should’ve listened to your body’s complaints for you staying up. But for now, you needed that small nap.  
…  
The small nap turned into 6 hours of daytime used up, leaving you just about 2 hours to get ready and be there. Quickly getting ready, you happened to spot out that your computer screen was broken. Frowning, you walked over to inspect it. The monitor wasn't broken at all, the screen was just acting up. After trying and failing to fix it for 30 minutes, you finished getting ready and ran out the door.  
The party was loud. Of course, you were only there because you were the maid of honor for your best friend's marriage, and she practically begged to come. So here you were with a bad tasting beer in hand and past the point of being tipsy. At this point you could barely keep your eyes open, and you've been there for about 2 hours now… well you think you have.  
"Hey….I think I'm going to head back to my place…" You yelled to a bride's maid standing near you. She gave you an understanding nod and you shuffled out, tossing the cup in the trash can by the door.  
The cool air was a good refresher from the stale air back in the building, and promptly urged you to vomit whatever you had in your stomach. Straightening back up, a wave of realization washed over you. Your car was in the parking lot across the street. So, you started across the crosswalk (the sign said you could walk, and the lights were red), into the night. As you were walking, you started to delve into your thoughts not realizing that something was coming towards you with the intent to kill.  
And  
Just  
Like  
That.  
You were on the road your body crumpled up, a searing pain roared through you, and a shallow feeling of fear put you in a state of paralyzation. Your vision began to fade, and your voice was unable to pierce the thick dark night, the moon shone down with pity. Darkness shrouded your eyes completely, and you were in a state of stillness.  
…  
The air was thick around you, as you pushed yourself up. Looking around, you struggled to piece together what just happened and what felt like seconds ago. You noticed that your breathing was labored, and rough. Finally turning a full circle around and you met the eyes of 2 men. The taller one looked like he just hopped out of a pixelated baseball game from the age of the Gameboy, the other, not much shorter, looked like a merchant or a traveler with a mask of a frog. 

"Do you happen to be the one we are looking for?"


	2. 1- The start of many things, not including friendship

They stared at you expecting an answer, but you idly stared back, unknown of what was expected of you to say. Your head really hurts, and the way they look reminds you of something, but you don’t know what. Well, in full understanding, the only thing you could remember is your name, vague understanding of before you got here, and that your entire body hurts.  
“She’s not who we are looking for.” The baseball man spoke, the masked man only laughed.  
“I’m super sure she is, mon amie. Tell me dear, what is your name?” Your tentative stare fixed back onto the masked man, your body shaking as you plunged back into your thoughts.  
“(y/n).” You only gave your middle name, as you didn’t want them to know your first name. Hell, you didn’t even know them. In the back of your mind, you could hear a faint music box playing. Focusing in on the gentle music, it seemed like your past distant memories were playing. You could faintly hear a scream of pure terror, and lights were flashing everywhere. Gentle, or much rather, muffled talking could be heard from all directions. A hand was shaking you, another gently pulling you up. A hand on your shoulder jolted you from the memory. Looking up, it was the baseball man.  
“You looked like you were dying. Let’s go.” Dropping his hand off your shoulder, he started walking off where the masked man stood at a distance urging you to follow along. Frowning, you quickly walked over to him. Along the way, you fully took in the area you were in. The floor was a smooth neon green…. So were the buildings. The air was stifling and smelled of fire smoke, cows and decaying meat. You frowned in disgust. Squinting to the distance, you could see some sort of civilization, but they looked the same size. How was that possible?  
“Welcome to Zone 1, the agricultural district! Any first thoughts?” Looking over to the masked man, an itching desire to know their names spread like wildfire in your mind. The masked man could see it on your face. “How rude of me! I didn’t even introduce us, I am Zachaire, and this is...well, the Batter. He has no real name.” The Batter glared in Zachaire’s direction. Now knowing their names, it was easier to continue on with them. The working place with every step you guys took closer to it, and the smell of cows, and rotting meat grew stronger. You were fully nauseated at this point, it was a horrid smell. The other two didn’t seem too affected by the nauseating smell, and you were kind of envious of that fact. Once you’ve reached the farm housing areas itself, Zachaire spoke up. “Well, this where I shall leave you guys to your jobs, do take care.” And just like that he was gone. Before you could open your mouth to ask what he meant by “your jobs”, the Batter quickly spoke up.  
“We are going to go investigate the mines for these...workers.” Workers? What did he mean by workers? Unless he was talking about those neurotic clones working….wait, that might be the workers. You merely just nodded, and followed him around making mental notes of the area. The neurotic clones were called elsen, that they actually had 20 mini-eyes that look like a pair of regular eyes from afar. It was… very unsettling. Another tiny new fact to you was that the cows had metal in them, and the world was made of plastic and metal, and the lakes around the place and the rain was nothing but liquid plastic. You were silently freaking out as you learned more and more about this place you were stuck in. Well, now that you noticed it, the Batter had 4 eyes, and you thought you probably have more eyes than what you were born with. Hnnnn, this wasn’t sounding good, the only thought in your mind was to poke your face and find all the eyes on there.  
“Why, I am such a genius amnesiac!” You quietly whispered as you started to poke around your face. “Ow…” you whined, you found 6 eyes and effectively poked the 6th one. A gentle sigh of exasperation behind you. Turning around, the Batter was frowning. “Do you always look grumpy?”  
“Were you always an idiot?” He quickly shot back. Opening your mouth to fire back, an elsen spoke up.  
“Um...uh...I don’t think you’re allowed back here…. If you are here for the tour...it’s over there…” It sadly wheezed out and pointed towards the left near some actual people talking amongst themselves. Your eyes widened at the sight of actual people, you were starting to fear the idea that the elsen were the only form of human you’ll ever see… well other than Zachaire and the Batter. You started to make your way over to those people, when the Batter nabbed your shoulder and pulled you back over to your former spot.  
“We are here to purify the mines.” He said, in such a monotonous voice, it made you more anxious than before. On another note, what so important about the mines that you guys needed to go down there? The singular tree over in the distance looked like more fun than the mines. Hell, it sounded kind of ominous...you started to tremble as you delved into your thoughts again. You started to think about how you were a little hungry. If that was an actual feeling in this place or, more properly called, zone. What was the purpose of this place? Other than agriculture. Or the elsen? What about them? What was going on here???  
“Oi, Let’s go, we are able to access the mines.” The Batter’s voice pierced your thoughts causing you to jolt. You followed behind him, as he led the way to the mines.  
…  
The mines were dark, and stuffy. The thickness of the smoke reduced your breathing to short wheezing. Walking down the stairs, a small cat and a big floating ring were the first things you noticed. And it seems the cat noticed you too,  
"Hmmm, look at what the cat dragged in. Quite peculiar." The cat eloquently analyzed you.  
"I wouldn't be speaking to you oversized rat." The Batter snapped. You ignored them both and started playing around with the ring. It had a bright, neon glow, and it hummed with such a fine melody. It was the same melody you heard, when you were viewing your memories, or what you thought was your memories. Touching the ring and focusing in on the soft melody, you once again delved back into the past.  
Soft crying could be heard above you, and muffled whispering entered your ears. You noticed a steady, rhythmic beeping. Where were you? What was happening? Before the muffled whispering could fully come into focus, you felt your entire body shut down. 

Once again you crumpled on the floor, lifeless. A small banner of words entered your head before you fully lost consciousness…

Add-on Alpha has joined your team.


	3. 2- Eating ghosts isn't frowned upon, it's downright disgusting!

Waking up, your head was once again thrown into a flurry of pain. At this point you could barely breathe, something was sitting on your chest, and it was heavy. Opening your eyes, there was a grinning cat laying on your chest.  
"Ah, it seems you have escaped that perilous dream. Welcome back." The Batter grabbed the cat by the back of his neck, and gently tossed him to the side. You were able to fully breathe, well actually, wheeze again. Sitting up, you frantically searched for the ring, only to find it behind you. Picking yourself up and brushing off the dirt, you started walking towards the entrance of the one roomed mine. The Batter was soon to follow after you, then moved ahead to talk to some of the elsen to get access to the main mines. After the small exchange of talk, you looked over to the Batter walking back. He only gave a small nod to your unspoken question. And so you guys were off to the main mines.  
The main mines were more dusty than the last section you were in and smoke was much thicker. You felt like a kid with severe asthma, except you couldn't do anything about it. You could hear small bouts of whispering in the deep, dark corners of the mines. The Batter pushed you behind him, as he shouted for the specters to show themselves. They were quick to surround you both, but his reaction to it strongly differed from yours. You were quick to duck and cover your head, he only lifted up his bat, ready to fight.  
"Stay behind me, unless you know how to fight." Those were his only commands. You didn't answer, well, couldn't answer, you were ready to book it out of the mines. You couldn't get very far though thanks to your current breathing status. So, instead you stood up, your entire body shaking in fear. A sharp hunger pang shook you to your very core as you realized the ghosts could be a source of food at this point. Maybe you could lure on away? How would that work? You didn't care, you were just enacting off of intense hunger and fear. Letting out a small scream, you started off down the mines, in hopes that something would follow. You were running out of breath fast, taking that to note, you turned too many corners to count. You knew that you were lost, but you hope that your prey wasn't. Waiting for what seemed like forever, the specter rounded your corner. You spotted it when it spotted you, and you were quick to throw a punch at it. It only made the specter float back a little in stun, but it was enough time for you to capture it. A wave of guilt washed over you, as you questioned your actions for a quick second. But your hunger quickly erased the thoughts as soon as the entered. Opening your mouth, you quickly bit down and ripped a chunk out. At this point you were nothing more than a feral animal eating the spoils of the successful hunt. It tasted heavily of smoke, and had the consistency of a cloud. A surge of emotions washed over you almost making you vomit, but you bit it back and finished what you were eating.  
After you finished, you stood up and wiped off your mouth and started back to finding the Batter. You felt a little more confident of your chances of survival here, but you still needed to stick closer to the Batter. After walking around alone in the mines, you found a ladder, deciding against your better judgment, you climbed down. It was an empty dead-end at first sight, but upon closer inspection there was a switch that looked like a lamp. It was as if it wanted to be found. Messing with the switch until you heard the tell all click. You looked over at the dead end to see a door slowly open to reveal a room full of the elsen. They were all frantic when the door was opened but when they saw you, they visibly relaxed. But you freaked out when you heard the creaks of the ladder being used. Whipping around to find out who was using the ladder, you let out a held-back sigh. It was just the Batter climbing down. He frowned when he saw you standing there.  
"What were you thinking when you ran off?" A tiny bit of concern showed through the scowl on his face. You weren't sure if you should tell the truth or tell the lie. You wanted him to trust you, but you didn't know how you would react if you told him the truth. So, you told half the truth but half the lie.  
"I got scared, and so I ran." You mumbled in disappointment at yourself for what you did. He looked skeptical, but accepted it. He walked past you to go talk to the elsen, and looked through the chest. You started back to the ladder, and climbed back up. Wandering around and taking in the scenery of the mines, you noticed the whispering again, and the different types of specters walking around the place, going in and out of walls and in and out of the ceilings. It was fairly entertaining and brought a small smile to your face. The first smile you had ever since you ended up in this world. 

Maybe it wasn't so bad being here.


	4. 3: Where everything doesn't piece together as it should

“What are you smiling about?”The Batter quickly caught up with you at the top of the ladder, relieved that he didn’t have to hunt you down that long again. You merely pointed at the specters floating about, and let out a small giggle. 

“The specters are acting funny.” Oh. That’s why. He nodded and started walking. When you didn’t follow behind, he turned around and waved his hand to urge you along. You snapped out of whatever you were daydreaming about and followed behind. It was time to learn how to fight, if you were ever “separated” from the Batter. Meaning, you had to find some kind of weapon, because just your hands wouldn’t get you very far. After searching around and learning the basic attacks along with working heavily on strategy, you found a yo-yo. It wasn’t much, but you could remember quite a lot of tricks with yo-yos. 

“We can try and find something else for you to fight with if you want.” The Batter was trying to reason with you about your weapon choice. You shook your head, you could easily make this work. Maybe if you talked with Zachaire, he could help you make it a more effective weapon. While you both were walking out of the mines with Alpha lighting your way, you were having fun testing out your memory with yo-yo tricks. The Batter looked over mildly interested in what you were doing, only to find you creating cat’s cradles. Noticing his stare, you looked over and smiled. A couple of elsen spoke up about you guys walking out of the main sector of mines, stating that you could be there. The Batter quickly smoothed things out with them, and gained access to the barn in order to purify it. 

Cleaning out the barns was faster than anticipated, but it still didn’t guarantee getting out of it without being hurt. You ended up with multiple cuts and bruises, the bruises coming from hitting yourself with the yo-yo. Especially, the bruise from hitting yourself in the eyes, respectively earning yourself 3 black eyes. As you and the Batter were walking out the barn, you could hear something along the lines of someone angrily telling them that they are doing their job wrong. But before you could peek out to see who was yelling,the Batter yanked you back behind the barn door, waiting for the man to leave.

“That’s the zone guardian, Dedan. He’s aggressive as all hell. It’s best just to stay out of his line of sight until it’s time.” The Batter hissed quietly. You couldn’t really speak cause the Batter’s hand was over your mouth, so you just let out a muffled “okay”. When the yelling subsided and heavy footsteps wandered off with a grudge, the Batter let you go and you both made your way out of the barn. The eslen outside the barn door was genuinely surprised.   
“Ho-how did you sur-survive there?” The elsen was truly curious, but you needed other answers.

“That guy back there seemed like a real jerk.” You spoke bluntly, the elsen was taken aback. The Batter muttered something in french, and you hated the fact that you didn’t take the time to learn it. On a more positive note though, “We clear out the barn, it is now specter free.” The elsen visibly relaxed.   
“Thank y-you.” You smiled in response, it felt good helping them. You should help these guys out more often. 

“ We can’t stay here to chat, we have to finish up the mines.” The Batter was urgent on trying to finish the mines up, and you could completely understand. You guys were burning daylight, and by now it was in the late afternoon. You remembered that you still needed to visit a building right after the mines,but you couldn’t fully remember the name of that place. You followed the Batter back down to the mines to complete what was unfinished. Entering back down into the mines was different that time, it was a little easier to breathe down there. You thought you were getting used to the heavy smoke. 

Cleaning out the rest of the mines was a breeze, and you could fight with more agility and balance. The specters had such curious looks and you couldn’t help but ask so many questions during the small skirmishes. But the Batter just ignored you, swinging at the specters with such speed, but it seemed like him and the add-on Alpha were competing for speed and who could eradicate the most ghosts. When you started to wonder when you guys would make it out of the mines, the exit of the mines was there. And so was Zachaire.

“Ah, I thought I’ve either missed you guys or you were just taking too long!” Zachaire exclaimed, it was actually nice to see him, like a long awaited save point. He was there as a reassurance that you were not going in circles in the mines. 

“I really thought we were going to not make it out.” Zachaire laughed at your statement, and you felt embarrassed. “So… what are you doing here anyway?” You stared at the floor in embarrassment and kicked a small bit of dust.

“Easy, mon amie. I am a merchant who will always be in the most convenient places for you. Now, would you happen to fancy a look at my wares?” That made it easier to understand his purpose around here other than to antagonize you. On the other hand, you were curious about what he brought with him.   
“We need to be on the move, so whatever is going on, make it quick.” You frowned at the Batter’s urgency, sending him a questioning look, he replied, “We need to be in Alma before the next dawn.” Alma? Wait, didn’t the rude guardian say he was heading to Alma?   
“Very well then, I will keep it short and sweet. How many credits do you have?” You felt awkward, mostly cause you didn’t know what “credits” were. Is that their currency? Possibly, you checked your inventory, only 100 credits, an eye, a couple of luck tickets, and a few jokers. Yikes.   
“We can’t buy anything, will we meet you later on in Zone 1?” You were betting on the possibility of Zachaire being Alma quite heavily.   
“Of course I will, you can meet me outside of the guardian’s little place and we can discuss business there.” You nodded, grateful for the proposed meeting before delving into the fight that was to be. 

“Great, we will see you again then.” You waved and went ahead into the room, and the Batter followed along. The room had an elsen behind a desk with an elevator to the right behind the elsen. The Batter talked to the eslen behind the desk, and you tuned them out to think about what was in the journey ahead. A shiver ran up your spine as you thought about confronting this mysterious Dedan, guardian of Zone 1. What did he look like? Why was he so rude? What does he think of his zone? The questions started to pile up in your head, causing you to panic. You painfully took in a deep breath, and tuned out your thoughts and focused back into the current situation. The only thing you caught was that the post office floor level was forgotten, you felt like crying. You had no idea why, just wanted to crouch down and cry, but instead you walked the way to the elevator, and leaned up against the wall inside. The Batter finished talking to the elsen and joined you in the elevator. You pressed the button to start the journey to find the number of the post office’s floor. The elevator stopped after a minute, and opened the doors to reveal a mixture of elsen standing behind desks and pacing, both muttering numbers. While looking around the vast room, the Batter fast tracked it to the elevator across the room, urging you to follow along. Entering the elevator, you were greeted by 3 sets of numbers and 4 floor levels, the post office’s numbers in question marks. The Batter entered in the floor number for the roof. You sent a questioning look over to him.  
“Thought you might want fresh air, to get a break from the stuffiness of the placc.” That was...nice of him.   
“Thank you.” Since the place was so tall, you decided to take a small nap, to pass the time. Sliding down to the floor, you pulled your knees close and rested your head on them. 

You woke up to the Batter poking you, as if he didn’t know any other way to wake you up. Once he saw that you were up, he stopped and stood at the edge of the elevator. As you slowly stood up you noticed that the smoke was lighter up here, and that a slight breeze was sweeping over the area. It was… raining plastic? Was that their form of water here? You could exactly remember. You spotted the cat sitting out there in the rain, didn’t you meet him earlier at the mines? Shaking the thought away, you gingerly approached the cat, only to jump back when he noticed you.   
“Hello again, peculiar one.” The cat stood back up and meandered over to you. You awkwardly waved at the cat, at the loss for words. This was because your brain was trying to catch back up from being asleep for whoever knows how long. “I noticed that you finally made it here, concerning the fact that it is evening now, and we only met in the early hours of dawn. Not only that but you’ve encountered the great enigma of the post office floor. I’ve heard that it was overflowing from dastardly specters. I have also taken a peculiar interest in offering you some help… If you truly desire it?” It was like the cat spoke in rhymes and riddles, you had some understanding to solve a few riddles, but probably not enough to decipher the cat’s.  
“We would appreciate some help.” The Batter’s voice from behind spooked you. You were so wrapped up in your thoughts about the mysterious cat, that you’ve forgotten he was, at a distance, behind you. 

“Excellent, now listen closely and carefully if you wish to solve the great enigma of the post office. In one of the four rooms in the ground office, the employees have been trained to a certain set of instructions. To be added, I would prefer the lower-case rather than the upper-case. That’s all I can provide for such a mystery.” The cat’s grin widened as if it knew you wouldn’t be able to comprehend the riddle he just gave you.   
“Alright then. Come on, we need to stay in the ground office if that is the case.” The Batter started back towards the elevator, with you closely following behind. This time you didn’t sleep on the way down, it was probably better if you did sleep, but you needed your mind sharp for this.   
“We should possibly split the room in half and one of us each take a side. That way we will cover more ground faster.” You mentioned. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was something right? The Batter nodded in agreement. When the elevator doors opened, you both set out to your side of the area to cover. You listened to each and every elsen’s muttering of numbers taking mental notes of it. 

Meeting back up at the elevator’s entrance, you both compared what you both learned. It turned out that you found the right floor number, or what was the supposed number. Entering it on the elevator’s number pad. You both stood back in anticipation and in hopes that it was the right floor. The doors opened to show the post office. You felt light-headed, possibly from the excitement. It was barren, yet full of boxes at the same time. You could hear the faint noise of a distressed elsen. Following the noise and ignoring the Batter’s complaints about you wandering off. Turning the corner, you found an elsen wheezing in fear, it noticed your presence and turned around. 

“I’m so scared…” Before you could reply or comprehend what was going on. It’s head burst off to show black ink spilling out of where it’s head used to be. It sizzled your skin as it fell down like rain, it leapt forward, it’s claws tearing through you like you were just paper. Dropping to your knees, blood slowly spilled out staining your clothes red. As you were coughing up blood you could hear the Batter shouting for you. Then everything went black.


	5. 4: Should dead people be able to dream?

The Batter was quick around the corner, almost crashing into boxes, to find you dead on the floor and a burnt floating over you. Defeating the burnt was something like clockwork for him. Having run through this zone so many times that he memorized the events of this place, although, he never seemed to finish this zone. He couldn’t advance to Zone 2, Fighting Dedan always proved to be a task, no matter what strategy he could come up with. Maybe teaming up with you could make things easier for him. He could really use help, any help, just to topple the corrupt royal family through their foundations. Once he finished the burnt, he turned his attention towards you, using a joker to bring you back to life. 

He honestly felt disappointed, how could one die so easily? Especially to a burnt. How… humiliating. Then again, when he was first starting out he lost to that same burnt, mostly because it caught him by surprise. Crouching down he found great interest in the burnt’s remains, it was still bubbling. Breaking off a piece of spare wood, he poked around it, surprised that the wood was melting into it. He turned around to see if you have come back yet, and you were sitting up with pain written on your expression. Standing up and letting the rest of the wood piece burn, he walked over to you. “So you’re finally back.”

“Was I actually dead? Cause I had a vision of sorts…? It was super weird.” You started to ramble on about what was in your head in the moment, and after talking for so long, you looked up to see a very annoyed Batter. You instantly shut up, there was no need to make matters worse.

“You are fucking useless.” That….was an arrow to the chest. 

.

.

. 

.

“I apologize for being useless. Is this where we split ways then?” You were now wanting to avoid conflict at every turn you could. A heavy sigh could be heard from above. 

“No.” That was one off the pier. You stood up and brushed the dirt off your pants only to notice that you now had 3 gashes in your shirt and 3 new healing scars. Lovely. “Let’s go ahead and get this over with.” Finishing the post’ office’s many floors was a task especially when you have to memorize so many little notes. On the fourth and final floor, you found an elsen standing behind a counter and a gate in front of the elevator next to him… kinda like the exit of the mines. You were about to approach it, but quickly remember the last time you approached an elsen without the Batter close by. So you just stayed behind him. The elsen wanted a password and it was a good thing you remembered all the notes’ numbers. Getting access to the elevator, was quick after fighting another elsen or much rather burnt as you found out. 

Entering the elevator and waiting for it to arrive at its destination turned you into a bundle of nerves, you felt like vomiting. The elevator jolted to a stop, and the doors opened to a small room. You frowned, that was very anticlimactic. You were hoping for something to hop out ready to fight, yet nothing came. 

“You just going to stand there?” The Batter was already at the doorway, and now you could hear faint angry yelling in the other room. You could recognize it as the yelling from outside the barn. You could finally get to see the man behind the yelling. Anticipation caused your body to tremble with excitement, this was it you could finally solve the little mystery in your head about the first guardian. Entering the room you saw a 7 ft man yelling at a bunch of spectors. After he finished the specters, he took notice of your presence in the room. Pointing a really long finger at the Batter, he accused him of being the one to cause this mess. 

“Why in the absolute fuck are you doing here again?! Don’t you every fucking give up you dumb twat?!” Such harsh language to be spoken, you looked over to see the Batter’s expression through all of this, and you were surprised. He looked genuinely disinterested in what Dedan was swearing at him. How could one look like that when being insulted? What did Dedan mean by “do you ever give up”? Has he been here before? Were they friends? What happened here? “And who the fuck are you ya dumb broad?” Your eyes shot over to the guardian. “Finally decided that you needed help to defeat me, you weak jackass? Pathetic. No need to open your mouth, I already know what’s to be said from you. I’m heading Alma, if I see you there I will personally rip your head from your body, spine attached. Ya hear that fuckers?” Then the guardian teleported out of there. 

“What a vulgar man.” You stood there stunned. 

“You’ll get used to it after hearing it so many times. C’mon, we have to go catch a tram to Alma.” The Batter started out the room with you following along. Taking the elevator back down, it once again jolted to a stop. They should get that fixed… hopping out of the elevator, because the air was stuffy in there, you raced your way to the door. You needed the lighter air of smoke from the outside, rather than the heavy smoke from inside the postal building. When you got outside, you lean against a wall, your head hurting and you almost passing out. “What were you racing out for?”

“I-I was running out of air in there.” You struggled to catch your breath, and everything was starting to feel fuzzy. 

“You’re possibly having a panic attack, you can calm down on the tram.” You nodded and followed after him, each footstep proving to be a task. Thankfully, the station was really close by, so you didn’t have to walk that far. Sitting on one of the tram’s benches, you were able to calm down and breathe easy again. It was going to be a long ride to Alma, but you couldn’t sleep, you were still hyped on the adrenaline from the supposed “panic attack”. 

“So...who are we trying to defeat? As in...the mission on hand?” You found it the perfect time to ask about what the hell was going on, and it was good timing too, from what you could tell, the Batter looked like he was about to sleep. It was nighttime by this point, the moon high in the sky. You weren’t sure about the time dynamic of this place but you could give a good guess that it might be midnight already. You should sleep… after the questioning though. 

“We are to stop the reign of the Royal family, starting with getting rid of the scum that control each zone.” 

“Royal family? As a mother, father, child type scenario? We aren’t killing the child right? What did they possibly do for you to up and decide this?” 

“Just shut up and fucking sleep. It’s already hard enough to fight Dedan, but it will be even harder if we haven’t gotten any sleep. Got that?” He was annoyed again, but you were put a little at ease about what was going on. You still had more questions though. Maybe you’ll ask about that tomorrow, for now you can finally drift off into sleep.

A/N Hi, sorry. Just a few quick notes here, I know I said that some things will be cleared up, but since I changed the plot of this chapter so much, those things would be cleared up after the fight with Dedan. Again, I apologize for that and for getting this out sooooo late, I just couldn’t figure out how to start this chapter off after y’know the player’s death. How’s one suppose to recover the story after that? On another note, I just want to say thank you so much for reading this, it means a lot, especially when this is my first time writing fanfiction. I ‘ll shut up for now, and see you later!


	6. 5:Pedalo flipping is not a joke, Kim.

You were awoken by your head hitting off the hard wooden benches of the tram as it halted to a stop. You quickly stood up only for your body to protest. Looking around you took in the surroundings, nothing new, other than the fact that the sun was now rising. The Batter was still sleeping, and started to think of ways to wake him up. It was mostly chaotic ideas, like you know punching him in the face...especially for that comment earlier. Using your better judgement (because you knew that he was going to get beaten up anyway by Dedan), you decided to just tug on his sleeve. He was quick to wake up, staring you down with all 4 eyes, it made you feel uneasy. Letting go and backing up and off the bench, you stood up and walked out the tram withhim following not to close behind. 

“So this is Alma?” You tried to break the heavy silence between you and him. He only nodded. Spotting Zacharie in the distance, you violently waved and saw him wave back. You picked up the pace to go meet him, because this time you had the credits to do business. 

“Ah, ma chérie, c'est si agréable de te revoir!” ...eh? You couldn’t understand what he said but you knew it was in a totally different language. You nodded and hoped he didn’t continue speaking in french. Out of the corner of your eye you could see the Batter roll his eyes in an annoyed matter. “So, do you have the credits for business now?”

“This time we do. What's in the inventory?" Zachaire laughed, and opened his inventory. Looking through the list you bought some support items and a new shirt. (Mostly because you couldn’t keep going with people staring at you weird with tears in your shirt.) You were now back at your starting amount of 100 credits. 

“Ah, it is always a pleasure to do business with you.” You were pretty sure Zachaire was smiling so you grinned back. “*Something seems to be bothering you, Batter. Dare to speak it?*” Zachaire was back to speaking french and asked a question that seemed to put the Batter on edge. 

“Rather not, I have other things to take care of.* Possibly later, perhaps in Zone 2’s mall?*” Turning around to face you all he saw was an empty spot where you were supposed to be. Zachaire snickered, when the Batter noticed that you were gone. Letting out a sign of annoyance, he started off towards where you might’ve run off to. Searching for you wasn’t that hard, all he had to do was turn around the corner to see you drenched, shivering, and muttering curses.looking over the meat pools, he saw a white lump floating close to the shore, unsure of what it was, he made his way over tense and ready to strike. Only to figure out that it was a flipped pedalo, and all the pieces connected together. You flipped a pedalo and fell into the meat pools. He was disappointed not in you, but in the fact that he was there to see it happen, he bit back a smile to what it could’ve played out to be, and turned around to see if you didn’t suffer too much trauma. 

“‘What is that liquid? It’s cold and has a disgusting smell and sound… I absolutely hate it. I probably smell like it too.” Oh explaining this to you was going to be a pain, it’s already hard enough that you didn’t know the layout of the entire region of the kingdom, but he couldn’t blame you. You don’t even know who you are, why you’re here, who’s pulling the strings, or what is even your past. You were just a blank slate to be used. 

“These are the meat fountains of Alma, maybe if you would listen to the eslen or ask the Judge, you would know.” While, yes, the last of that statement was meant to be a rude jab, you were still trying to understand the first part of it. But hold on for a second…

“The Judge…?” You had a curious look of confusion on your face, the Judge sounded familiar yet you couldn’t pair a face with that name.

“The cat that we constantly run into.” Oh, funny. A cat called the Judge, it totally made sense though because the cat looked like it was constantly judging you when it saw you. It was actually quite rude.

“Okay….so how do we get to Dedan office?” You looked around the neon green plastic area and the meat rivers that flowed through it. 

“We have to go through this and the building’s architecture to get to him.” This was going to be a long day. 

…

Although the pedalo was small, it was enough room for the both of you to sit on it in slightly uncomfortable positions and on the verge of flipping it. Fighting the big creatures in it was no easy task either. You made sure to take careful notes of all the numbers on the walls, worried that they would be a part of a difficult puzzle. Fighting the burnts got easier and easier the more you faced off with them. Eventually, after some difficulties along the way, you and the Batter finally made it to the 1st guardian's lair, and it was quite peculiar, it seemed as if he had a serious thing for purple. And the sound system and rooms were set up quite weird too. When you would come close to one of the deep purple either the music would get louder or quieter. 

“As weird as it sounds, we have to go through the louder sounding doorways if we want to confront Dedan.” The Batter pointed out, you had a fleeting feeling he has gone through this multiple times. You pushed the thought aside and trusted his word for it. The louder music did cause a headache but it got you both to where you need to be. You both entered into a simplistic red room, with the only thing in there being an office desk and a very broken down wooden chair. And the man of the hour, Dedan. He was quick to notice the both of you entering the room, putting out the cigar he once was smoking, he turned his full attention on you.

“Ah, yet again we meet for another fucking usless fight. Want to see if I will actually hold up my threat this time?” He sneered. You had a serious gut feeling that this was going to be harder than most.

(a/n the next chapter will come out much later due to the fact that I’m writing 2 different timelines for this, also this is now cross posted on Wattpad if you want to read it there rather than here!)


	7. 6/: and I said time? what does that have to do with this?

The air was tense as everybody was in the room. The Batter was switching his weight around from foot to foot, Dedan was opening and closing hands aggressively, and you were nervously smiling thanks to the tense energy. This only seemed to push Dedan over the edge, as he was spooked as your smiling was offsetting. 

“I ‘ll rip that stupid grin off your face!” He growled, he was the first to start the battle. He was quick to start off with silent moves, you didn’t know what they did to you until he did a couple more. It was slowing you both down, making you and the Batter sitting ducks to be booted and punched to oblivion. Seeing that Alpha was barely affected by it, the Batter called for it to release a good number of attacks one after another to keep Dedan busy. Once the effects slowly wore off, you were quick to loop Dedan’s legs with what string you had with the yo-yo and gave a good hard yank as to topple the big man over. He didn’t even budge, all he did was give you an intimidating stare and you giggled nervously. The Batter took advantage of your distraction with Dedan and landed a solid blow to Dedan’s head. The tall man yowled in pain and stumbled about, now you’ve really pissed him off. Violently shaking his head, he regained his composure and launched some more attacks, this time not dealing with slowing you and the Batter down. Sizing up his options, Dedan decided that it would be best to go after the Batter first, seeing as he was going to be the bigger threat of the two. Dedan ran forward and grabbed the Batter’s bat and with the other hand punched him hard in the jaw. It was his turn to groan in agony and stumble back. Dedan focused on you next, with you launching another attack at him, he grabbed your weapon of choice and forcibly yanked you towards him, headbutting you in the process, putting you into a daze. This might have given you a mild concussion with the force hitting your head. And something was made very clear to you, you didn’t have your glasses. You didn’t have time to dwell on that thought though, for a clawed hand was reaching for you. You were frozen in fear, your eyes widened. You were like a deer caught in the headlights, but the Batter yanking you out the way snapped you out of it.

“Oi! Fucking pay attention, we don’t have much room for any fuck ups!” The Batter yelled, fending off Dedan. Your thoughts hit high speed rerun, and the intensity of the battle got louder and louder, until...silence. Everything instantly cleared up and it was like your mind was on autopilot. The battle plan came clear to you, all you needed was cooperation from both your teammates in this fight for purification. You couldn’t hear anything except the tiny whispers of commands, fear, sadness, and despair. They all meshed together into the trigger to override anything deviating from what was currently happening. Reaching your hand out to Alpha as to bekon it back from dealing with Dedan, you gave it a list of commands and a direction to go. After sending out Alpha, you yourself weaved through to throw Dedan off balance. And it was good timing too, because Dedan was choking the Batter out. Acting like a battering ram, you slammed your entire body into Dedan’s leg in hopes that it would topple him over. With Alpha buzzing around his head like a fly, you caused Dedan’s leg to give out through sheer force. Letting go of the Batter, Dedan stumbled forward trying to regain his balance. When he did regain his balance, quite quickly may I add, he whipped around and attacked you. His claws slicing your face open, rendering your sight to only an eye. You could feel your life start to fade away, but you refused. You had to help take down Dedan. The Batter took notice of your condition, and ignored you while silently cursing about how you being a worthless fuck again. Dodging and weaving through Dedan’s attacks were getting him nowhere. He needed to actually get a hit in and everything was starting to blur together, and fade into red. He couldn’t afford to lose his temper now, although it may help in the current situation, he could simply afford to go through this zone again. Tuning back into the battle, he took careful notice of Dedan’s condition, and realized he was about to go out like a dying flame. This was it, it was finally happening. He used a furious homerun to finish him off, and to his surprise, Dedan didn’t fall down. 

“Thought you actually won, you bastard? Think again, the King was as so kind to prepare for this case, if it was actually to fucking happen.” Dedan growled in superiority. At this point you both were struggling to stand, tiny cuts and bruises littered your bodies from Dedan’s attacks. What more could there possibly be to this battle. A headache started to slowly brew in the back of the Batter’s head from the amount of annoyance of Dedan’s voice. Oh how he wanted for him to shut the everloving fuck up. At this point, he was in better condition than you, you couldn’t stand still, cause you were wobbling around from the amount of blood you lost. The only one who was in actual good condition was Alpha. The white, glowing ring floated lazily behind you, almost like a halo. He scoffed in annoyance, and turned his attention back to Dedan proudly boasting about the Batter’s bloody end hopefully once and for all. Except something didn’t add up. Steam started to pour out of the sides of Dedan’s head, as if he was about to set ablaze. Dashing off, Dedan slashed at the Batter, the Batter barely dodging. He noticed that Dedan’s claws were sharper, sharp enough to slice through the Batter like room temperature butter. If that was the case, then he would have to make sure you get out of the way, if you couldn’t comprehend what was going on already. Looking over, he saw that you were actually still aware of your surroundings, and trying to fight. Alpha carefully hovering over you to keep you from faceplanting. Focusing back on making sure that Dedan didn’t turn him into somebody’s drugs, he weaved through to land a couple of light smoke attacks. But they had no effect on him, so he had to switch tactics and it would have to include only Alpha and him. You were only rendered useless, as usual. Calling in Alpha for 2 rounds of saturated chain, Batter started running forward with a run with courage building up. Both landing swift heavy hits, Dedan’s final breaths came out in gasps. As if he was fighting to grab enough smoke to keep him above death’s icy waters. 

“You finally did it didn’t you? You finally defeated me…. how. HOW?!” Dedan was like a flare, his anger quickly building up. “Even with the backup plan the King gave me, I still failed to end your worthless lives! “ 

“Dedan, guardian of zone 1, you are finally defeated.” The Batter managed to push out, he too, was trying to stay alive. Dedan fell to his knees, pain searing his entire body, as he fell forward to the ground. The guardian of zone 1 has fallen. 

The tram ride to zone 2 had people staring at you both in disdain, as if you were wasting their time by existing there, seeing as it was going to be a long way there, you both fell asleep from exhaustion. You woke up to a vision, a group of people sitting around the table boisterously gambling. One figure laid down a royal flush, and the rest of the table groaned in anger. 

“Another royal flush? Are you cheating??” A ditzy woman whined, the masked man next to her only laughed. Then you really took notice of the group around the table. You were able to point out zacharie sitting next to a woman, the judge next to what looked like his brother? A big man with a tiny bird on his shoulder, sat nearby with a slender woman swirling a thick, deep red liquid in a wine glass, then the main attraction: the King and Queen sat next to each other with a tiny boy crawling all over the father. 

“What can I say, I just have a lucky hand… once again..” The King smoothly replied, his eye wandered around the table, taking notice of the empty chair. “Does anybody know what happened to Dedan? I know he would be pitching a fit about this right now…” 

“Well, your majesty, it appears that the Batter and his newfound buddy have made it to Dedan once again. I assure it would be yet another victory for us.” The slender woman spoke up. “Or they may have gotten stronger than before and overwhelmed him.” She swirled her wine glass around but you were sure that wasn’t wine. 

“Let’s just trust that he has yet achieved another victory. If not, Japhet prepare yourself.” The King was swift to command, his eye rested upon you, as if he knew you were there, a malicious grin branded itself on his face. “We will eliminate this pest, once and for all. Do you understand.” A collective “yes, your highness” could be heard around the table. “Good. Now who’s shuffling this time?” 


	8. 6\: Betrayal is the sweetest when it is deserved +bonus chapter

(Takes place before the fight w/ Dedan; Batter’s POV somewhat)

Walking through Dedan’s lair was interesting, especially the way he set it up. Having been through the layout multiple times before, the Batter knew it like the back of his hand. As a matter of fact, before he took to this particular obsession, he ventured throughout the many zones. This one place took the top of his most peculiar places he has ever visited. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t give notice to the fact that you were plotting something, but he did notice your burning gaze on his back. 

“What’s the matter with you?” He turned around and called out to you. Snapping out of whatever trance you were in, you just shook your head as if to signal that nothing was the matter with you. Accepting that as an answer he turned back around and continued. Unbeknownst to him, he was slowly losing control over the situation at hand. Before he could react a group of strings wrapped around his neck cutting off any room to breathe. 

Struggling, the Batter violently jerked around in hopes to throw whoever was choking him to the ground, but his attempts were in vain. The room was turning dark while spinning, a sickly sweet laughter rung out behind him. It hit him like Dedan's fist to his face, to think he could place some trust in you. How foolish he was to loosen the leash. Now his actions were biting back more ferocious than his bite. As his final breaths exited his lungs he could hear your last words towards him, dripping with disgust and pride.

"Oh, how the tables have returned, I thought you would give more of a fight. Nevertheless, I did what was asked of me. Isn't betrayal the sweetest when it is deserved. After all it is the best to kill the problem before it gets any bigger." Alpha was the final nail to his small coffin, slicing his head clean off like a guillotine. 

<>

He woke up with a gasp, his hand immediately reaching for his neck, only to take notice that it didn't happen. He could hear a few snickers for those on the train and in his head. 

"We should kill her." A raspy voice spoke up from the depths of his mind. 

"No we should you dumb fuck." A second, more aggravated bocie spoke up. "That retarded broad was our ticket through fuckhead number 1. She could be our straight shot to the asshats ruling this clusterfuck of a country." 

"Fair point… Then we shall dispose of her when she's provided the full extent of her purpose" the first replied. 

"Doesn't mean we still don't have to keep an eye on her, we just saw how quick she killed us. It is very easy to lose her to them." He piped up. "Until then though, we have to keep a firm grasp on reality."

(A/n-   
Yikes it took me way too long to write this chapter, especially with it being so short. To make up for it, I created a little something!)

"Oh my love, I happened to lose Hugo again…" the Queen called out. The King put down his book looking over to the Queen as she displayed clear signs of distress. 

"Don't worry my dear, he's outside observing the garden with Melody. Perhaps you would like to join them?" She gave a silent nod of confirmation. Standing up, he walked over to the Queen, gently leading her outside, carefully enough to make sure she wouldn't fall on the sudden drops of the steps. 

"Oh, I wish I could finally see these flowers…" The Queen's hand glided over the petals of the peony, longing for the day she could finally see the beauty of the world, and her husband's and son's faces. 

"Don't worry my dear. I am doing my best to find out what it is I need to do so you can see." Placing a gentle kiss on her head, he placed her in the care of Melody. "In which I have to do now, my dear." Perhaps later I can read you a book." A weak smile crossed her face.

"Perhaps."

<>

This was absolutely frustrating. No matter how hard he looked he couldn't find the answer to his wife's aliment. Experimenting with eyes was difficult. None of them seemed to work. He tried every type he could find, it just didn't work. Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he paced around his lab. Thinking of possible solutions was difficult, especially when the options for this were getting very slim. His thoughts raced wildly, each of them a repeat of the other. 

Till it hit him. There were still 2 possible options for this. A wicked grin spread across his face. Of course! Why didn't he think of this before? It required two special specimens, and getting them wasn't easy. But he knew just the trick to do it. Although it was going to be painful, only for the receiving party, as long as he got what he needed. After all he did love his wife dearly, and was willing to do anything for her.

(That was short still, but it is a little bit of foreshadowing, and again I apologize for writing such a short chapter and taking so long on it. I do hope you are satisfied with this, and have a great day!)


End file.
